Stress, the silent killer

Life throws up innumerable situations, which we greet with both negative and positive emotions such as excitement, frustration, fear, happiness, anger, sadness, joy. And when the negative reactions to life’s situations become repetitively intense and frequent, we tend to develop symptoms of depression. Depression is prevalent among all age groups, in almost all walks of life. But in our modern scenario with the constant rise and development of our companies, which is setting high standards for the employees, There is something else that is stealthily developing with it, that is, stress. Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. When faced with a threat, whether to our physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body’s defences kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight’’ response, says Dr Shiney Benedict. The responses could be in various forms — palpitation, tensing muscles, breathing fast, heavy perspiration, blocked thoughts. Science is constantly experimenting about the impacts that stress could have on the overall health of an individual, as it is a contributing factor and all common ailments like backaches, insomnia, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome and so on. Stress is one of the biggest killers and cause of most chronic diseases, which makes an individual miserable. It is linked to major ailments like cancer, heart diseases, lung diseases and even suicides. It is found that 75 to 90 per cent of youngsters who visit primary care physicians complain of stress-related symptoms. This happens especially in the age group of 25 to 40 years.

... contd.